Bitter Moon: The Huntress/FBI Thrillers, Book 4

FBI agent Matthew Roarke has been on leave, and in seclusion, since the capture of mass killer Cara Lindstrom - the victim turned avenger who preys on predators. Torn between devotion to the law and a powerful attraction to Cara and her lethal brand of justice, Roarke has retreated from both to search his soul. But Cara's escape from custody and a police detective's cryptic challenge soon draw him out of exile to probe an unsolved murder that could be the key to her long and deadly career.

The Dollmaker: Forgotten Files, Book 2

Dr. Tessa McGowan had never seen anything quite like it. But the mutilated bodies on her exam table tell a stunningly macabre tale: someone with a twisted mind is kidnapping women and altering their faces to resemble real, life-size dolls. As a forensic pathologist, it's her job to aid the agent leading the case - even if that agent is her estranged husband.

Once Shadows Fall: A Thriller

After years of paying her dues on the force, Beth Sturgis has earned her place as a detective for the Robbery-Homicide division of the Atlanta PD. Now, she's heading up a major manhunt for a potential serial killer who's working his way inward from the outskirts of the city. The copycat elements in the first crime scene lead Sturgis to retired FBI agent Jack Kale, who was responsible for apprehending and nearly killing the murderer known as the Scarecrow, the same Scarecrow who appears to be this new killer's terrible inspiration.

The Kept Woman: Will Trent, Book 8

It's the most dangerous case of Will Trent's career. He knows this from the moment he sets foot in the abandoned Atlanta warehouse where a body lies on the floor - the body of an ex-cop. Bloody footprints leading away from the scene reveal that another victim, evidently a woman, was carried away and has vanished into thin air. And, worst of all, the warehouse belongs to the city's biggest and most high-profile athlete - a local hero protected by the world's most expensive lawyers.

Heartsick

Damaged Portland detective Archie Sheridan spent 10 years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful serial killer. But in the end, she was the one who caught him. Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for 10 days, but instead of killing him, she mysteriously decided to let him go.

The Academy: A Short Story

Quitting her job as a high school science teacher to join the Seattle Police Department was an easy decision for Tracy Crosswhite. Years earlier, what should have been one of the happiest days of her life instead became her worst nightmare when her younger sister, Sarah, disappeared. After the murder trial, while her family disintegrated, Tracy turned her heartbreak and her lingering questions into a passion for justice.

All the Pretty Girls: Taylor Jackson Series #1

When a local girl falls prey to a sadistic serial killer, Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson and her lover, FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin, find themselves in a joint investigation pursuing a vicious murderer. The Southern Strangler is slaughtering his way through the Southeast, leaving a gruesome memento at each crime scene – the prior victim’s severed hand.

Field of Graves: Taylor Jackson, Book 8

All of Nashville is on edge with a serial killer on the loose. A madman is trying to create his own end-of-days apocalypse and the cops trying to catch him are almost as damaged as the killer. Field of Graves reveals the origins of some of J.T. Ellison's most famous creations: the haunted Lieutenant Taylor Jackson; her blunt, exceptional best friend, medical examiner Dr. Samantha Owens; and troubled FBI profiler Dr. John Baldwin.

Exhume

Dr. Annabelle Schwartzman has finally found a place to belong. As the medical examiner for the San Francisco Police Department, working alongside homicide detective Hal Harris, she uncovers the tales the dead can't tell about their final moments. It is a job that gives her purpose - and a safe haven from her former life at the hands of an abusive husband. Although it's been seven years since she escaped that ordeal, she still checks over her shoulder to make sure no one is behind her.

Triptych

From Atlanta's wealthiest suburbs to its stark inner-city housing projects, a killer has crossed the boundaries of wealth and race. And the people who are chasing him must cross those boundaries, too. Among them is Michael Ormewood, a veteran detective whose marriage is hanging by a thread and whose arrogance and explosive temper are threatening his career. And Angie Polaski, a beautiful vice cop who was once Michael's lover before she became his enemy.

A Dark Lure

Twelve years ago, Sarah Baker was abducted by the Watt Lake Killer and sexually assaulted for months before managing to escape. The killer was caught, but Sarah lost everything: her marriage, her child, and the life she loved.

Struggling with PTSD, Sarah changes her name to Olivia West and finds sanctuary working on Broken Bar Ranch. But as her scars finally begin to heal, a cop involved with her horrific case remains convinced the Watt Lake Killer is still out there.

The Body Reader

For three years, Detective Jude Fontaine was kept from the outside world. Held in an underground cell, her only contact was with her sadistic captor, and reading his face was her entire existence. Learning his every line, every movement, and every flicker of thought is what kept her alive. After her experience with isolation and torture, she is left with a fierce desire for justice - and a heightened ability to interpret the body language of both the living and the dead.

The Cutting: A McCabe and Savage Thriller, Book 1

Detective Mike McCabe moved from a top homicide job with the NYPD to Portland, Maine, to leave his failed marriage and suspicions of wrongdoing behind, and to find a more peaceful life for himself and his 13-year-old daughter. But the small New England city is not nearly as safe as he thought. On a warm September night, a missing high school athlete is found dead in a scrap-metal yard, her heart removed from her body with surgical precision. As outrage over the killing spreads, a young businesswoman disappears while out on a morning jog.

Before You Leap

Peace of mind is all Greg Cole has wanted since the murder of his twin sister, Scarlett. In his new sun-soaked Florida life, he thought he had found it. But when Scarlett's killer is released early from prison with a cast-iron alibi, Greg realizes that his past is about to explode into his present, with terrifying consequences. To expose the truth he must open up old wounds. Greg knows all about dark secrets, but when a childhood friendship comes to the fore, the police turn their spotlight on him.

Julie Prentice and her family move across the country to the idyllic Mount Adams district of Cincinnati, hoping to evade the stalker who's been terrorizing them ever since the publication of her bestselling novel, The Murder Game. Since Julie doesn't know anyone in her new town, when she meets her neighbor John Dunbar, their instant connection brings measured hope for a new beginning. But she never imagines that a simple, benign conversation with him could set her life spinning so far off course.

Fear the Dark

Fear grips a town in Colorado as a murderer targets entire families in their own homes. As police and the FBI struggle to contain the situation, they bring in forensic investigator and serial killer expert Darby McCormick. What she finds is a brutal and elusive predator who stays one step ahead of their investigation. As Darby navigates the blood ties and broken promises that divide the locals, she knows all the while the killer is watching, circling his next target: her.

Outrage: Faith McMann Trilogy, Book 2

The happy life Faith McMann knew as a wife, mother, and teacher was destroyed when vicious criminals murdered her husband, kidnapped her children, and left her for dead. After paralyzing grief, fear, and despair, there was nothing left for her to feel...except fury. But striking a staggering blow against a brutal ring of human traffickers was just the beginning of her uphill battle.

The Rosary Girls

A devious serial killer lays siege to the city of Philadelphia, brutally sacrificing pretty young Catholic girls on the altar of insanity. As the body count rises, an exceptional investigating partnership struggles to stop him. Detective Jessica Balzano, Philly's Homicide Unit's newest rookie, is teamed up with veteran cop Kevin Byrne, respected for his solve rate and known for his unorthodox methods.

The Stranger Within

Be careful what you wish for. On the surface, Callie Harwell has it all. Newly married to James, she finally gets the family she has longed for and becomes a mother to his two sons. So why is she arrested for murder? Things are not as Callie hoped they would be and she struggles to be accepted as part of James' family, and to keep hidden the secrets that could destroy her future. As her life spirals out of control, setting in motion a chain of events with devastating consequences, Callie is forced to question how well we ever really know ourselves.

Furious: Faith McMann, Book 1

Faith McMann comes home to a nightmare: her husband is killed and her son and daughter are taken. Although the intruders leave her for dead, she survives. Crippling grief and fear for her children make life unbearable. Until her anguish turns to anger...and she trades victimhood for vengeance.

Repressed: Deadly Secrets, Book 1

Hidden Falls is exactly as Samantha Parker left it - small, insular, and prone to gossip. Eighteen years have passed since she witnessed her brother's murder, but she's still the talk of the town. Until a handsome child psychologist with haunting memories of his own arrives. Dr. Ethan McClane isn't exactly a newcomer. If it weren't for his latest case, he'd never set foot back in Hidden Falls. Thankfully, no one seems to recognize him as the troubled teen from years past.

Lineage: A Supernatural Thriller

Pain, horror, fear - these are the things that have comprised best-selling novelist Lance Metzger's life. His childhood remains a riddled wasteland of abuse by a sadistic father and abandonment by an apathetic mother. In turn his only refuge became his writing. When Lance loses his ability to write and becomes haunted by a nightmare that he'd thought was buried, he is drawn inexplicably to a house on the shores of Lake Superior, where he finds his muse once again - but something is waiting for him when he arrives.

The Shark: Forgotten Files, Book 1

At the grisly murder scene of a teen prostitute, Virginia state trooper Riley Tatum's past roars back to haunt her. When she was a teenage runaway, she was kidnapped, drugged, and left unconscious on the streets. She has no memories of what happened, only strange recurring dreams of two men playing cards. Former FBI agent Clay Bowman, Riley's old flame, is Shield Security's newest member. He's plagued by the unsolved case of a serial killer nicknamed the Shark who murdered girls as part of a sadistic poker game.

Say Goodbye

For Kimberly Quincy, FBI Special Agent, it all starts with a pregnant hooker. The story Delilah Rose tells Kimberly about her johns is too horrifying to be true; but prostitutes are disappearing, one by one, with no explanation, and no one but Kimberly seems to care.

Publisher's Summary

Once, Special Agent Smoky Barrett hunted serial killers for the FBI. She was one of the best, until a madman terrorized her family, killed her husband and daughter, and left her face scarred and her soul brutalized. Turning the tables on the killer, Smoky shot him dead, but her life was shattered forever.

Now Smoky dreams about picking up her weapon again. She dreams about placing the cold steel between her lips and pulling the trigger one last time. Because for a woman who's lost everything, what is there left to lose?

She's about to find out.

In all her years at the Bureau, Smoky has never encountered anyone like him, a new and fascinating kind of monster, a twisted genius who defies profilers' attempts to understand him. And he's issued Smoky a direct challenge, coaxing her back from the brink with the only thing that could convince her to live.

The killer videotaped his latest crime, an act of horror that left a child motherless, then sent a message addressed to Agent Smoky Barrett. The message is enough to shock Smoky back to work, back to her FBI team. And that child awakens something in Smoky she thought was gone forever.

Suddenly the stakes are raised. The game has changed. For as this deranged monster embarks on an unspeakable spree of perversion and murder, Smoky is coming alive again, and she's about to face her greatest fears as a cop, a woman, a mother, and a merciless killer's next victim.

It was not particularly pleasant, some of it, but I could not put it down, as they say.
The purpose of my review is to merely say that I will buy whatever this author writes.
I go thru at least 20 audiobooks a month, and I rarely if ever, say that about an author.

This book has a punch on your emotions. I really liked this one because I had a bit of a tough time with it. a bit gory in some parts for me but it challenged me to follow through with it. I loved the characters and I had some real hate for some characters. The plot was intriguing and it had a real punch in the end. Narration was great, but Kate Reading is always wonderful.

This book was recommended to me by a reading buddy because she loved it and because she knows I like Karen Slaughter books. It is the beginning of a series that is not at all light reading. A brutal tale with all the suspense and twists that make up a good crime thriller. On to the next book, I hope the series gets better as it goes. Kate Reading does an excellent job with the different voices.

I was disappointed by everything in the book. There was nothing at all believable in it, it read like a Hollywood blockbuster - and I don't mean that as a compliment. The characters, most of all the main character were pure cliches of what we "expect" FBI agents to be - tough talking and patronising, with witty one liners spat out as often as possible. The story line in the book has been done a million times over, it even included the revelation of a secret love child! Give me a break. I also have to mention that the amount of times "honey love" is uttered in the book made me want to puncture my eardrums with a pair of chopsticks. Enough already!

What could Cody McFadyen have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Cody McFayden could have done more research on law enforcement procedure and a hell of a lot more character development to make the entire book more believable and not such a laughable cliche.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Kate Reading?

The problem wasn't with the narrator, though Michael Kramer has got to be my favorite.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Shadow Man?

The story has a great flow. And the idea of having a defendant of Jack the Ripper calling himself JackJr as your antagonist is pretty cool. The character development is solid. You actually end up caring about the characters, which in many books in this vein you don't 😏. The use of "Honey love" was a huge negative, over used & annoying to the point of hoping for that characters death early in the book. I did find the ending a little anticlimactic. After all the build up to the reveal of Jack Jr to have it end so quickly was not really satisfying to me. I would say that was my biggest disappointment with the book & the nauseating use of "honey love." Aside from that it was very entertaining & worth a listen. The narrator did a wonderful job.

I was hooked the whole time. Incredibly dark-just when you think it can't get any worse, another level of horror occurs. Good until the very last minute, I will be starting the next book in the series today.